Pupil Premium, how do I find out how it's spent?

[3MonthMaid]

I am a lone parent and while DD was in reception and part of year 1 she was on free school meals.

I knew about the pupil premium and in fact in her reception year the school paid for her to attend some after -school clubs. I was happy with that. I was also told at the time that it was the last year they were doing that as they were going to use the money differently to directly help all FSM children.

I didn't think much more of it until recently when I found out that DD was actually getting the pupil premium due to ever6 and would do for pretty much her whole primary time.

I have not seen any sign of anything being done for any particular children. Particularly not for DD. I'm not expecting her to have a nice new desk or anything equally quantifiable but I would like to know how the school as a whole allocates this extra money.

How can I find out? Would I need to go to the head? I just want a vague outline as to how this premium is benefitting my DD and others.

We have it on our website - it became a requirement a few months ago.

But ask the Head if you're not sure!

C&Ped from their report....

"The budget for XXXXX was extremely tight and we were working in a deficit situation. The money was spent on a teaching assistant. The TA targeted pupils during lessons in both classes and took small groups out for intervention work.

As a result of this progress is good and progress of pupil premium children is as good as those for whom we do not receive the funding."

LA Guidance on Pupil Premium Funding

"You will know of your statutory duty, since 2012, to publish online information about your Pupil Premium allocation and how you plan to spend it this year. You will understand that you must publish a statement of how you spent the money for the previous year and its impact on the attainment of pupils' eligible for support through the Pupil Premium. .... In addition, you will know that when evaluating the effectiveness of leaders, managers and governors, Ofsted inspectors will gather evidence about the use of the Pupil premium in relation to the following key issues the level of Pupil Premium funding received by the school; how the school has spent the Pupil Premium and why it has decided to spend it in the way it has."

There is also information in the Ofsted January 2013 report around the use of Pupil Premium.

My understanding is that it is separate from the main school budget, there is a requirement to account, separately for its use, it should be spent on the eligible pupils and it should be spent to support their progress and attainment even where pupils are not 'behind' in progress or attainment. It can be used to enhance eligible pupils' school experience - so on extra curricular clubs, music opportunities, school trips/residentials etc.

The report also said there were 3 eligible children - well I know who they are, as its such a small school, and I can safely say that two of them are very high achievers and definitely not getting individual TA support.

So it is being used as part of the school budget and not being focused, but then FSM entitlement doesn't necessarily equal deprived or struggling academically (not in our case anyway!) so it may as well go on a TA for the whole school to benefit from.

Would be nice to offer parents on IS/JSA help with costs of stuff they arrange during school time though.

It would be in the governors' reports too, as they check on how it's being spent, and how much impact it is making.

The money absolutely does not get spent solely on your child- the school may choose how to spend it. The only exclusion to this is PP for LAC- that is absolutely tied to the individual child, and the child's PEP must show what the plans for, and impact was of the funding.

Special schools only get PP for LAC on the approval of the Head of the Virtual School for LAC in each authority- some authorities decide to keep all PP for LAC in special and other non-maintained settings in a central pot for LA-wide projects.

Meant to say- in our school it goes on:

1-1 support for some individuals
reading recovery type scheme
extra tuition, either 1-1 or small groups OOH
paired reading
learning mentor support
payments for school trips for pupils from families on low income
materials for courses such as Food Tech, Textiles etc for pupils from families on low income

Don't know how we could make that happen otherwise really.

prh47 - I've always found your posts and helpful be very knowledgeable but in this case I'm not sure you're right. My DCs school has recently had an ofsted and one of the things they were criticised for was not using the PP correctly to directly benefit the pupils to which it relates and from talking to some of the governors they were told that it has to be very specifically accounted for now.

Interestingly I haven't been able to find any info on their website yet

I suppose I asked the question because although DD is academically fine, she has emotional problems, anxiety etc (largely based around the concept of splitting herself between two homes) and I hoped that the PP might help her to get some counselling. There is already a school counsellor who I think is at least partially funded by the PP and I thought maybe DD could see her...

3month - ask that question. That's sounds an absolutely great thing the school could fund with PP.

I am a governor. We don't hear about individual pupils, but we know that each child who attracts PP is tracked by the class teachers and leadership team.

They specifically identify what would help the child to progress, so often a 1-1 TA, but in some cases this has been school clubs to improve confidence, trips where parents simply can't or won't pay, and breakfast club for children who are regularly late to school - idea being school attempt to get them in an hour earlier;)

An example from a school one of my children attends:

"The school receives £17,400 pupil premium funding, and allocates it as follows

1 LSA Role at £10,700 
To provide extra support across classes to allow children to access the curriculum

.5 day per week ELTA £2,359
To provide emotional literacy support through the arts

1 day per week ELSA £2,359
To provide emotional literacy support to pupils.

Individual pupils are tracked through a well being indicator to determine their relative progress in this area."

If your DD has emotional needs, then you can approach the school, but it shouldn't be necessary to link this with the pupil premium money. The school will allocate that money as they see fit as part of the overall budget, but then track the impact on the children targeted.

Another example:

"2011-12
The Pupil Premium was allocated to supporting a child on a high incidence statement that was therefore unfunded. This supported the child to attend school on a regular basis and access the school?s curriculum.

2012-13
The school is carefully monitoring the progress of FSM children with a view to determining what special support they need individually. Most of the £27,100 Pupil Premium has been allocated to Teaching Assistants to support children with intervention programmes. A portion of the premium
will also be spent on purchasing new intervention material for Maths. We also have an inclusive approach to residential visits and families that need financial support with this are assisted. We are also looking to start a Nurture Group and this will benefit children that may find it more challenging to access the curriculum."

lborolass - I'm quoting from the Condition of Grant which lays down the rules. It is, however, true that various things are being put in place to encourage schools to spend the money on things that will benefit the pupils attracting the premium. After all, I think people would be surprised if the school spent it all on community facilities for people who work in the area even though that is specifically allowed by the Condition of Grant.

I know I am a day late on this ...but this tread has got me thinking (smoke alarm is going to go off now !!)

I have 3 ds's on FSM ..(I am a carer for my dad ..not because I can't be arsed to work)

ds1 is now yr7 secondary school ...clever boy report card are L6A-7B'S...nothing extra done for him that was not done for some other clever kids in his class ..ie they did L6 maths away from class .

ds2...yr 5....lovely bit above average child ....L5 in maths now ....

Both of them have plodded along and all trips and things have always been paid with no help from school...btw I have put their grades in to show fsm does not always mean under achieving (and mini stealth boast )

BUT....ds3 he is on SA+ and has an external Lit support teacher 1x week.
herself and OT and "suggested" ?? "requested" ICT use for him in class.

To be fair school don't know about the OT bit yet as SENCO has not been in for me to talk to her and give her the report.

Sorry this is getting so long winded now !...

I spoke to SENCO after Lit Support meeting and asked how it was going on sorting out ds's laptop/computer/ipad ??...don't know what they use in schools. She said she still had to speak to mr x as he deals with ict resourses but she did not think there were any available for ds to use.

Soooo ..not that I would (yet!) techinally I could say there is PP for him and his brother that could be put towards getting him some ICT for use in school.

Or have I totally read this tread wrong and just made a fool of myself

School have been good to me and my boys,and I hate hearing the lack of funds tales...but I also do a volentary after school club and all payment goes directly to school...so they are getting extra money thanks to me ..if that makes sense..

I shouldn't feel guilty about insisting they cough up should I !

Sorry....just couldn't stop once I started

I think I need spelling lessons

I think our school spends it on additional support teachers, learning resources, subsidising school trips for children on FSM to ensure they can go etc.

Schools are dammed if they do and dammed if they don't.

Understandly schools do not want children on free school meals to feel stigmatised. There is an obligation to keep it secret who gets free school meals and who doesn't.

For example if your school choses to employ an extra teaching assistant with the pupil premium money then its quite lightly that the teaching assistant will be instructed to work with all the children. (Otherwise the teaching assistant will know which chidlren are on free school meals.)

Schools have to be shown to be raising achievement of FSM children. They can spend the money however they like. Prehaps paying for a TA to listen to children read more often will help your daugher academically far more than attending netball club.

As far as academic work goes it makes far more sense to group children by ablity than financial background. Some middle class kids are throughly thick and need to be on bottom table and some gifted and talented kids are entitled to free school meals.

My son's school has paid for an extra teacher with its pupil premium to come in the mornings for year 5 and 6 so that classes for numeracy and literacy so that low ablity children are in a class of 15 and high and middle ablity children can be in a class of 25. All children are benefiting from smaller classes and being taught at their ablity level.

Thanks prh47 - is there some kind of other agenda that means that schools (at least in my area) are being told that general spending is no longer acceptable and that it must be pupil specific?

As a theoretical point could you use the rules you've quoted to argue with Ofsted?

maybebentley and Pantone363 instead of being dismissive to me, read my post again! I am telling you we have had a letter from my daughters SLD special school saying the amount allocated regarding pupil premium per child is 10k!

I am pretty sure this is lower than it used to be

owllady - I'm sure figures in special schools are higher than mainstream because they need to be so I imagine that pupil premium may have different meaning to the amount that is paid for FSM children is mainstream school. I'm sure both sides are correct but maybe aren't talking about the same funding.

maybe

A huge number of children with disablities are on free school meals because its so hard to work if you have a child with a major disablity.

I used to work in an MLD school and the pupil premium was exactly the same as mainstream. However special schools get more money per head of child because the children are all statemented. The funding of a child without statement is substantially less than 10K. (Typical 2K to 5K depending on the key stage the child is in.)

Special schools have tiny classes with lots of TAs. Dave Cameron's son Ivan would have quite rightly had an expensive statement, even though his parents were rich. Some special schools are funded at 120K per pupil where as others are about 10K per pupil depending on the child's education and medical needs.

lborolass - I'm surprised if they are being told it is pupil specific. However, it wouldn't surprise me at all if they are being encouraged to show that the pupil premium is being spent in ways that benefit the pupils concerned as a group.

Ofsted conducts an annual survey to find out how schools are spending the pupil premium. This covers schools being inspected and also a random selection of other schools. This is all designed to highlight good practise and encourage schools to spend the pupil premium appropriately.

If Ofsted penalise a school for the way they spend the pupil premium I doubt that trying to argue with them would get a school anywhere. Ofsted are entitled to say, in effect, you are legally entitled to spend this money how you want but the government is providing it so that you can improve the results of FSM children, so why are you spending it on other things. Ofsted's case would, of course, be weakened if FSM children at the school were doing as well as the rest of the school population.

prh47bridge...I am confused..As said earlier ,I have had/have 2 FSM dc'c not needing the PP. Glad the money went somewhere where it was needed....

But ds3 does need extra resources for him ..regardless of SA+ or FSM that he is both on .

Can I push and say because he is on PP the funding is there for him to have the ICT support ??/

OFSTED look at the gap of achievement between FSM children and what children achieve on a national level. Its not about needing PP. A child who is level 3 at the end of year 2 and on FSM might have one to one tutition to get them to level 6 by the end of year 6.

If the school can produce substantial evidence that buying pink ponies with fsm money has improved the progress of fsm children then they are allowed the freedom to do that.

"prh47bridge...I am confused..As said earlier ,I have had/have 2 FSM dc'c not needing the PP. Glad the money went somewhere where it was needed...."

There is no real way of knowing what money has been spent on your other two children. Schools do not usually divulge every details of their budgets. Interventions are done subtley to maintain the dignity of fsm children.

I will say what I believe is the current situation for Pupil Premium. The current funding for 2013-14 is £900 for each pupil that qualifies for Ever6. The definition of Ever6 is any pupil that has been entitled to free school meals in the last 6 years. It has been set up like this to recognise the fact that many secondary pupils do not claim FSM even though they are entitled and therefore by going back6 years it means that the secondary school is not penalised. The funding will increase again next year but no figure has been agreed yet.

There is a legal requirement for the governing body of every school to put information on the school website or another appropriate website information on the number of pupils getting the funding, the level of funding, what it has been spent on and most importantly the impact of such funding in reducing the attainment gap between those pupils who are or have been FSM and those that are not. Any school that is spending the funding on special needs pupils does not understand what it is there for. A pupil on FSM could be gifted and talented but the evidence is there to show that even then that pupil is probably not achieving as high as they might have done if they were not FSM at some point. What the funding is spent on in those circumstances is likely to be very different from where the child is struggling academically

Whilst PRH is quoting from the condition of grant but there is a reality about what Ofsted are asking in inspections. If the governing body does not know what the PP funding is, how it has been spent and the impact of that spend in closing the attainment gap then that school is likely to go into a category at the end of the inspection. I would suggest that schools not individually recording what the spend is on each eligible pupil are asking for trouble next time Ofsted come calling.

What everybody however needs to realise is that the school is responsible for the decisions over how the PP is spent, so it no use heading for school to ask for the £900 for something. In many cases whilst it is pupil specific it will be that maybe 6 pupils will receive the same intervention.

I am afraid that the special school is not receiving £10000 pupil premium and if they are saying that they need further advice. The £10000 is the base funding that they receive for each pupil in the school plus top-up funding based on the individual needs of that pupil.